


Broken Toys

by millenniumprophet (CrossroadProphet)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 03:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12268038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossroadProphet/pseuds/millenniumprophet
Summary: Ryou will one day learn that games with a certain ghost involved are rarely so easily won. If only it was a lesson he'd learned earlier.





	Broken Toys

Ryou has a lot of figurines in his apartment. From Monster World pieces to limited run figures from some of his favorite games and shows, the shelves of his apartment are pretty full. He's a collector, true, but he supposes gifts are easier for distant fathers to send in boxes than actual care and support.

It's fine, he tells himself, unpacking a new gift from his father. At least he's thinking of him. The figure is a dragon, icy white with golden eyes, wings flared as it threatens some unseen heroes away from its home. Ryou already knows it will be an amazing prop for his next campaign. Tucked against the dragon in the box is a note from his father, scratched in his abominable handwriting:  _Can't wait to hear this story_.

His dad is distant, and not the best at being a single dad, but he tries. And Ryou can't find it in him to blame him for that.

He pulls the dragon from its packaging and looks towards his shelves, quietly wondering how he'll rearrange them to fit this piece. The top shelf, he thinks, will be the best place for it.

Taking it with him to the case, Ryou quickly starts sliding pieces around, moving smaller figures to other shelves, and making enough room for the dragon at the top. Once it’s situated, he pushes some of the older figures back into place, arranging them neatly around the white beast, when one of them catches his attention.

It's a player figure for Monster World. He frowns and picks it up, taking it with him back to his game room. Not only does he not usually keep these smaller figures on the shelves, he doesn't actually remember this one. "Where did you come from?" It's a warrior class, a big great axe strapped to its back, and Ryou really can't remember the last time he designed a character like this.

He turns it over as he walks and his eyes fall on the piece's face. There's a moment of nothing, just increased confusion, before the sharp angles of the face morph into something more human from Ryou's memory. Itsuo Hirai, a bully of an upperclassman at Dominio who had suddenly stopped coming to school weeks ago.

Horrified, as if the figure burned him, Ryou drops it and watches the piece shatter.

He steps back, like the shards might bite, and presses his hand over his mouth. No. No, that has to be a mistake. Around his neck, the Ring feels heavier than usual, and Ryou rushes away from the shattered pieces, stumbling to his knees in the bathroom where he thinks he might be sick.

 _What did you do?_  he thinks frantically, in front of the toilet, fighting the rise of bile in his throat. Hirai had only stopped coming to school a few weeks ago, and his friends had defeated the dark spirit in his Ring months ago. He was supposed to be gone, this was supposed to be over.  _WHAT DID YOU DO?_

His hands stop trembling against the porcelain first and it’s not at all because he’s suddenly feeling calm. Ryou is frantic. But his body goes stiff and rigid as he’s pushed firmly to the back of his head. It’s a familiar and terrifying experience, watching his body without any control.

He’s pushed away from the toilet and can see the smirk the ghost wears on his face in the mirror as he passes it.

“I did nothing that wasn’t what you wished,” he says, with not his voice. The ghost speaks lower than he does, voice rough like gravel, but light with amusement.

_I never wished for this!_

The Spirit laughs, and then in Ryou’s own voice says, “He’s a bully. I wish there was something we could do to stop him, the teachers do nothing.”

_This isn’t what I meant, Spirit!_

He laughs again and walks out of the bathroom, back towards the shattered mess. “This isn’t what I meant, either, but oh well.” He nudges a shattered piece with his toe. “I just meant to take him out of play, you’re the one that’s gone and taken him off the board.”

Ryou can’t feel anything happening to his body like this, but he may as well have had ice water thrown over his head.  _What do you mean...?_

Still laughing, the Spirit bends down and picks up what should have been the figure’s face. He bounces it in his palm before turning it over for Ryou to see. The warrior’s face is smooth and blank, no trace of Hirai left.

 _He'll wake up. Won't he...?_ The question is barely whispered through their connection as Ryou stares at the piece, physically unable to make his eyes look anywhere else.

“Oh no, host. You didn’t end the game he and I were playing.”

The silence stretches out between them and if not for their connection, the Spirit might have missed his words entirely.  _You killed him..._

“Not me. You.”


End file.
